Fai di primavera, il giardino della Kolymbethra di Agrigento tra i 780 luoghi da visitare in Italia

The Spring Days are a time to collect donations (visits are by voluntary contribution) and registrations from "those Italians who allow us to carry out the daily work of maintenance and public opening of the assets of the Fai,” the president says.

That’s fine then, the minister said again, quoting the Oscar-winning film by Paolo Sorrentino, the “great beauty” but it should also be good in the Hellenic sense of the term, where the canon of beauty inspires the essence of goodness. In this sense, “the Fai represents what is beautiful and good in Italy.”

The Spring Days, emphasizes Fai President Marco Magnifico, are “always the result of the passion and spirit of service of our extraordinary volunteers but I would like them not to be considered as an isolated event because they are truly a megaphone to tell the commitment of every day of the year in the restoration and enhancement in the management of the assets that belong to the Foundation: there are now 78 and this year we are investing 12 million euros in their restoration, 2 million for ordinary maintenance.”

The Spring Days are a time to collect donations (visits are by voluntary contribution) and registrations from "those Italians who allow us to carry out the daily work of maintenance and public opening of the assets of the Fai,” the president says.

Returning in the first weekend of spring is the most important public event dedicated to Italy's cultural and landscape heritage with guided tours in 780 locations scattered across 400 cities throughout Italy. These are the “Fai Spring Days”, scheduled for Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22, now in their thirty-fourth edition and with which the Fondo per l’ambiente italiano from 1993 to 2025 has helped nearly 13 and a half million Italians rediscover over 17,000 special places in the cities and territories where they live.

Among the new features of this edition, presented today at the Ministry of Culture, is a selection of openings to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Italy.

In thanking the volunteers of Fai from all regions (a total of 7,500 plus 17,000 Apprentice Ciceroni, or secondary school students trained specifically for this), Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli pointed out the many possibilities for enhancing and sharing Italy's cultural heritage, focusing on the meaning of "subsidiarity" in the conservation of cultural assets according to the principle established in Article 118 of the Constitution: "it is a very beautiful term that conveys the idea of integration, of a complement between tools and people, the idea that no one is sufficient unto themselves. There is the idea that the State represents the citizens, but the citizens must and can have an active and conscious role" in making their choices freely.

And in this case, Giuli stated, "subsidiarity represents not a relationship of mutual dependence between Mic and Fai but a mutual love for what makes Italy the nation that holds a leading position in cultural assets.

It is fine then, the minister continued, citing the Oscar-winning film by Paolo Sorrentino, the "great beauty" but it must also be good in the Hellenic sense of the term, where the canon of beauty inspires the essence of goodness. In this sense, "Fai represents what is beautiful and good in Italy".

The Spring Days, emphasizes Fai President Marco Magnifico, are "always the result of the passion and spirit of service of our extraordinary volunteers but I would like them not to be considered as an isolated event because they are truly a megaphone to tell the story of the daily commitment throughout the year in the restoration and enhancement in the management of the assets that belong to the Foundation: there are now 78 and this year we are investing 12 million euros in their restoration, 2 million for ordinary maintenance".

The Spring Days are a moment to collect donations (visits are on a voluntary contribution basis) and registrations from "those Italians who allow us to carry out the daily work of maintenance and public opening of the assets of Fai" the president adds.

Among them are the Abbey of San Fruttuoso, which was gifted to the Fai by the Doria Pamphili princes, Castello di Masino, a grand palace in Piedmont, Villa Necchi Campiglio in the center of Milan, which is now almost a cult destination for those visiting the city, Baia di Ieranto, gifted to the Fai by Italsider, and the garden of Kolymbethra in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. These are just some of the assets that the Fai owns and preserves, of which 60 are permanently open to the public.

Instead, there are hundreds of special places open on March 21 and 22, from north to south of the Peninsula, often little known or underappreciated, many of which are usually inaccessible. Among them in Rome is the Palace of the Ministry of Education and Merit, designed by Cesare Bazzani in 1912; the Supreme Court of Cassation, located at the Palazzo di Giustizia, built according to a design by architect Guglielmo Calderini; and the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the first major example of Renaissance architecture. In Milan, among others, open doors at the Palazzo delle Finanze, built in the 1930s, Palazzo Turati, Torre Libeskind, and the Rai Headquarters on Corso Sempione. In Turin: the Palazzo di Città, home to the City Hall, with richly decorated rooms such as the Mayor's Hall, the Hall of Marbles, and the Council Hall. In Naples: Stadio Maradona, inaugurated in 1959, and Palazzo d’Avalos del Vasto. In Liguria, the Lanterna di Genova, the most famous monument in the city.